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Local Natives – Breakers Lyrics 13 years ago
I would have to agree with you on that conclusion. I started to get that idea too when I heard

"Leave all the lights on
Can't see out
But they see in"

As if he is awake and conscious but lacks clarity in his view on the world. A void of lucidity if you will.

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Jimmy Eat World – Night Drive Lyrics 13 years ago
This song feels like a confessional & a narrative: with the singer reminiscing on a past love who hurt him,loved him, and moved him until he finally broke away while also narrating a moment of intimacy between the two lovers.

"Lay back baby and we'll do this right
There's blankets in back we can use
I'll start the car, but we'll stay in park
The cold can kill us before fumes"

The first line feels like it has two meanings: one given to a past moment that precedes the two lovers making love & the other a foreshadowment of the singer making his stand against his lover.

"Now's the right time for a good song
Got something to say what I can't
Do you feel bad, like I feel bad?
We'll pour us a road, we'll both drink and drive"

The singer is having a hard time expressing himself and requires extrinsic forces, like a song or a drive, to help him piece his thoughts together. By asking "Do you feel bad, like I feel bad", the singer is trying to probe an emotional response from his despondent or abusive lover. "Pouring a road" is a metaphor for taking a long drive which both will need to concentrate on the discussion that is to ensue.

"Kiss me with your cherry lipstick
Never wash you off my face
Hit me I can take your cheap shots
Leave you with the love we made"

The chorus here is the singer reminiscing on the thoughts, imagery, and memories which resonate with passion for the love he had and doesnt want to "wash off his face" or forget. At the same time, the singer makes clear that this love is falling apart, as his lover attempts to belittle him with "cheapshots" but to no avail as he is now ready to separate from his lover knowing they once were in love.

"Come alive on the driver's side
So close I taste your breath
Your lips go dry, but they're sweet inside
Wine must go right to your head
It'd be easy if you get mad
But three fingers point back to you
We could stay here
Stay out all night
No one will know
us and the moonlight"

By come alive on the driver's side, the singer is beginning to speak up for himself. His lovers lips go "dry" because shes finished berating him and talking, but he knows inside her is or was this person he loved : what is "sweet inside". The singer then alludes to a possible vice of his lover, wine or alcohol in general, maybe she parties too much and always needs to be subdued by a substance as opposed to relishing in his presence and their love. At this point, the singer wishes that this break up wasnt so hard, as if his lover were "mad" it would be "easy". At the end of this part, the break up isnt going so smooth, there is some sort of disagreement and talking isnt helping at all.

"Kiss me with your cherry lipstick
Never wash you off my face
Hit me, I can take your cheap shots
Leave you with the love we made"

Again, the singer reminisces on the love they once had and this helps reinforce the narrative in the song.

"I set my watch by a street-side clock
A needle in echo groove
You pierce my heart like a willing arm
Your ticking makes my blood move
There's no way out this fade out
Be Happy to Get what you do
Make him notice with both fists
Cause quitting alone will never get you dry"

This part feels like the singer is saying that this memory of the break up is stuck on a repeat of sorts. He feels wounded by this past lover. Every moment of time with her set on this "echo groove" which serves to say that the moment never fades with time. The belittling of his past lover, or the "ticking", still angers or moves the singer, keeping him alive,making his blood flow, in a very depressing kind of way. Ultimately, the singer wishes that his past lover should take care of herself, stand up for herself, in order to overcome, or get "dry", whatever vice or shortfall she had that tore their intimacy apart.

"Never get you dry"

"Give me everything you've got now
I don't feel a single thing
Drag me out into the cold rain
Let it hover over me"

Here the singer reminisces on the break up, hes ready or wants to survive this ordeal. She cant hurt him anymore, hes numb and cant feel anything. She can "drag him into the cold rain" and yet he seems stoic about it all, he just is completely numb at this point.

"Kiss me with your cherry lipstick
Never wash you off my face
Hit me, I can take your cheap shots
Leave you with the love we made "

"Hit me, I can take your cheap shot
Leave you with the love we made"

"Hit me, I can take your cheap shot
Leave you with the love we made"

At this point, hes standing up for himself looking back at it all. Why he loved her, why he left her, and how he can move on without her.

Anyhow, this was my personal interpretation. We all refer to personal knowledge when trying to extrapolate meaning from what is poetry, and for this I looked back on a bittersweet but short relationship I had once.

Rock on Jimmy Eat World...

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